Max is a sophomore peer mentor this year, majoring in Engineering and Performing Arts Technology and possibly considering some other avenues as well. According to Max, being creative for him means always having things scheduled. He habitually schedules time just for music, where he isolates himself in a creative bubble, turning off his phone and focusing on his work. This extends even to certain classes he is taking, one of which he says has no phone service, making it much easier to focus and have a lot of time to work without distractions. Some of the key aspects of creativity for him are confidence and humor. In this context confidence means believing you can create something without judging yourself too harshly in the process, and humor means not taking it too seriously when things dont work out, again without judging yourself.
Collaboratively he has worked with other Living Arts students to create music, and one of the ways he says works best, is when one person brings in a melody and then he is able to create chords that fit with it. This sort of thing is why he says he joined Living Arts in the first place. He values the fun and open community where students actively put aside time to just be creative in a non-serious but still motivated way.

Bridging Music and Engineering, Max says that he has noticed that “the mentality that makes someone a good programmer is the same mentality as what makes someone a good composer”, meaning the ability to sit down and spend time honing skills on an instrument, whether that is a laptop or a musical one.

Freshman Spotlight: Spencer Haney

Spencer is a freshman member of the Living Arts Community this year. While he is currently undecided in the College of Engineering, he has already gained experience in a variety of different areas, covering most of the other disciplines that are part of Living Arts. He has participated in 42 hours of Re_Creativity, portrayed a zombie in the Haunted House, played upright Bass in the University Pops Orchestra, and is currently enrolled in 5 credits of dance classes, a drawing class, and PAT 201.
Outside of the University he has independently created a 700 lb cement statue inspired during a home improvement project, and is currently trying to build his own analog synthesizer. Although you can easily buy one of those, the reason he is building his own is so that he can see how it works.

One of the great services Spencer does for Living Arts is represent the community on the Bursley Hall council. He helps bridge the gap between student ideas and Bursley by bringing things like the Haunted House, the canvas paintings, as well as many other projects, to the attention of the hall council, who can then support those activities. He also is a member of the team, self nicknamed "The Living Arts Brain Trust”, that is campaigning for not only a few murals in the halls, but also for the creation of an infrastructure that will allow Living Arts to create changes in its own space. Furthermore the team is hoping to create a similar system that can be implemented by other groups in other spaces on campus.

Community Throwback

All Community Meeting - IBM Watson Group

Senior Vice President of the IBM Watson Group, Michael Rhodin, and members of his team presented "Creativity and Innovation in Corporations" along with live demonstrations of Watson applications including a recipe generator called Chef Watson and assistive robots.

In November Associate Professor of Dance. Amy Chavasse, lead a workshop titled “Making Meaning from Movement”. Students used influences from words, poems, videos and each other to create unique dance routines and movements.

Designed and created by Living Arts students, this year's annual Haunted House operated under the theme of a zombie attack gone wrong in UofM's own uninhabited dorm, Baits I. Contrary to the theme, the Haunted house was constructed in the Living Arts Lounge in Bursley, and was open to visitors Halloween eve.

42 Hours of Re-Creativity Recap

Congrats to the Living Arts team "Harsha" on winning second place in the annual Living Arts run competition, 42 Hours of Re_Creativity! Team members included Tanner Petch, Kate Arnson, Jake Meyers, Spencer Haney, and Ellen High.

Living Arts Alumni who were members of other teams included Paul Giessner, Mihir Sheth, and Jane Zhang on team "P.A.T.H.M",

as well as Zach Boulanger, Katelyn Hoag and AnneMarie Mueller on "The Reschaffenators".

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